Unprotected
by J S Arnold
Summary: He only wants her to see that he is not dangerous, he never meant for it to go so far, he wanted her to trust him.
1. Chapter 1

**AR One-Shot**

**I do not own the Vampire diaries**

**Unprotected**

Elena felt his eyes on her from the window, but she could not move from where she lay on her side. She thought Damon was behind her, by the window, in the shadows beneath the ledge. She felt tired and all she needed was some sleep. But her eyes stayed wide open, fear making them sting. Her closed book felt heavy on her lap, although she held it tightly.

She could feel his eyes on her and the skin of neck prickled and itched. The agony of knowing he was watching her but not being able to move, to breathe, felt like torture. All she wanted was to close her eyes, but if she did more than blink he would find a way inside.

He played with her like a cat would a mouse. He would wait until she grew complacent and then he would strike. He thought about how the blood travelled through her neck, how it ran through her body, calling to be devoured by his hungry mouth. He imagined that she would be willing to do anything he said, if only to make him go away, and the thought excited him.

He did not announce his presence in words, but he did not have to. She could feel him in every fibre of her being; his sensuality, she thought, was the most dangerous weapon he wielded. He didn't need his teeth or his beyond-human strength. He did not need his agility.

There was not a single sound her keen ears could hear, but it only took a second for him to be standing by her night-stand. She heard him drop the vervain necklace onto the carpeted floor and crush it under his shoe.

"'Won't be trying _anything_ now, will you?" he hissed at her, his fangs extending and the veins around his eyes growing darker. He enjoyed the sound of her whimpering, ecstatic that he finally could show her how much she had hurt him when she fell for his brother and not him.

She felt a soft kiss on her neck and her hand flew to her skin. He had kissed her, left a slight dampness on her skin. She turned and saw the window closed, the curtains shut, everything as it was before. But had he gone? It was light enough that she could make out the objects in the room, and Damon was no where to be seen. He hadn't hurt her this time, but she had no doubt he would be back for more.

Her eyes dropped to the floor beside her bed. She could see the shards of her necklace glinting in the moonlight, all the magic within it shattered and destroyed. If he had broken her necklace, wouldn't he then have the opportunity to compel her – he could have made her do anything he wished. Why hadn't he?

Elena knew that Stephen's brother was evil, and she would think twice before presuming he had good intentions, but maybe he had broken her protection to explain that there was no danger in him.

Damon opened the door to his mansion and collapsed dramatically into the leather armchair. He prayed that she understood that he was nothing to be afraid of, and that no amount of vervain could keep him away. She belonged to him.


	2. 2

AR One-shot

I do not own The Vampire Diaries

2

Elena wanted him back the moment that he left. Without him she felt cold, and without more than just the necklace around her neck. The moment Damon left her she felt unprotected and uncertain of what to do with herself. Part of her swelled with warmth as she remembered the hopeful, slightly boyish, light in his eyes and felt her heart rate pick up. But she also had never felt so confused.

She loved Stephen, she would always, but she _wanted_ the other brother. She wanted him to take her, ravish her, be here with her for however much time they had left. She wanted to call him, but she only knew Stephen's private number at the boarding house and she did not want to talk to him right now. With all these thoughts in her mind, so many questions, she knew that he would hear it in her voice. If he asked her what was wrong, what could she say? He would know if she lied to him.

She couldn't believe this was happening, but she could barely believe the sensations she felt when she thought his name.

_Damon. Damon. Damon._

She picked up the shards of necklace and held them in both her hands. It still struck her how he hadn't even tried to do anything, although part of her felt just the tiniest bit remorse for ever thinking that he _would_. Perhaps he wasn't the monster that his brother always painted him to be.

_Or maybe he was?_ Maybe he wanted to lull her into a false sense of security, and then he would try something when she was defenceless? This conclusion seemed more likely than the other.

That did sound more like something he would do, but the only question would be why? Why would he wait until Stephen wasn't in town to pull this? It didn't make sense to think that he had ulterior motives. And he _had_ seemed sincere.

"Damon," she said aloud to her window, feeling like an idiot for talking to an inanimate object. She prayed that he was still near enough that he could hear her calling him. She heard a creaking sound outside her door, as if someone was standing on the other side of it, listening.

She turned and shuffled to the door. When she opened it she found Aunt Jenna standing with her arms folded across her breast. She had an expression on her face which she put on when she was trying to be the authority figure. "Did I just hear you say _Damon_?" Jenna asked in a subtly dangerous voice.

"No..." Elena said, trying desperately to cover her tracks, "Why... Why would you think he was here." Then she realised her mistake, but it was too late to take it back. Her Aunt was looking around her bedroom with narrowed eyes.

What could she be seeing

"I hope it's ok if I stay here a while, Jenna," a masculine voice breathed, "Elena and I were just hanging out."

Elena felt her body tighten all over.

"I guess that's fine..." Jenna said dreamily as she motioned to leave, shutting the door behind her. She paused at the bottom of the stairs as if she were contemplating why she had agreed.

"Damon," Elena tried, but she was already caught up in his embrace. She could feel how his body pressed snugly against her's, how their shapes just fit, as they kissed.

"I love you Elena," he said, "there's nothing that can protect you from that."

~Le Fin~

A/N: I think I want to leave it there and not do any more on this story. I know that I would have to introduce Stephen if I carried on, and I just _don't want to_. :-) DELENA


	3. 3

A/N: obviously I didn't mean Le fin, or La Fin even, I'll soldier on for as long as people want me to.

3

Elena awoke the next morning feeling drained, her fingers holding the bed-covers tightly as if she were holding on for dear life. It was only when her fingers groped the surface of the little table next to her that the memories of the night before returned – and a coldness gripped her chest and choked her. As she stared unseeingly across the bedroom, she saw his face in the shadows below her desk, and her hand rose to her neck autonomously. The pendant was gone but something else touched her skin.

She felt the two dents in her skin with her second finger and where she touched the marked skin it burned. She felt a scream building beneath the wound but for the life of her she could not release it – it was stuck in her throat like the large pills she used to have to swallow each day, but she _knew_ that it was something else inside her. Poison, she thought, toxic and irreversible, coursing through her system and changing her.

The curtains at the large window were closed, but the light seemed unnaturally strong. Her skin tingled with the warmth of that morning in an almost painful way and her tears dripped down her cheeks like a waterfall. Everything hurt the morning she woke up.

In the kitchen downstairs, she could hear the sounds of plates hitting plates, and glasses coming down hard on the work-top, so clearly it was as if she were in the same room. She heard outside the sound of garden sprinklers begin to come to life, and the sound of bicycle wheels as the newspaper boy made his rounds in their street. But she couldn't hear anyone saying that they had heard someone break in to the house.

Only, Elena _knew_ that someone _had _ broken into the house last night, and she was certain she _knew _ who it was. Damon must have been too saturated with her blood last night that he made a sound as he exited the house. She might have found comfort in this if she hadn't _known_ that Damon was never so sloppy; he was a predator and he knew the game too well to make mistakes. He just didn't. But she thought, had she invited any other vampire into her home?

And then she felt herself double-over and wretch. What was it that Stephen told her? Originals were beyond the restraints of the normal vampires, and that meant they didn't need to be invited and they could come and go as they pleased. Her fingers fiddled with her phone as she dialled the number for the boarding house.

"Stephen," she said the moment she got through, "he bit me!" And there was a silence on the other end and she heard the call disconnect. Had he understood, was it even him on the other end?

Seconds later and there was rhythmic tapping on the glass of her window. Elena turned and saw Damon staring at her with his perfectly shaped eye-brows furrowed. She knew he could smell the dried blood coating her wound, but what would he do if she invited him inside. She could never tell what concerned Damon more, but she hoped as she took the handle that it wasn't his hunger. She had barely gotten the words from her lips before he pushed her and the door aside. He stood glaring at her for a time before he could trust himself to open his mouth.

"What have you done to yourself," he asked her breathlessly. He could smell the tangy sweetness of blood and he licked his lips unthinkingly, anticipating her taste in his mouth. "What kind of _trouble_ have you gotten yourself into today I wonder?"

Elena stepped back a step as he crept closer – deliberately slow, like a lion, blood-lust adding an almost erotic edge to his movements. She did not think she could turn her back on him for one moment without him pouncing on her. She didn't fully understand what being consumed by your instincts, as Stephen had put it to her once, meant but she knew that right now there was nothing left of the Damon she had come to almost love.

"You're bleeding," he purred, his words irresistibly sensual, "Don't you want to stop bleeding – for me to _lick_ it up?"

He pounced just as Elena held her feeble arms in front of her, and a second later he was splayed on the floor, clutching his chest with an expression of torture on every inch of his face. She dropped the charmed necklace to the tiled floor and it skidded across it. She felt all the breath leave her as she watched him shakily get to his feet.

"Who hurt you?" he then asked soberly, thankfully making no move to come closer.

She thought about that for a moment, but answered with a certainty that came from deep within her mind. "Klaus." She didn't want to make him think that he had failed her by not staying last night, because if he had he may have been killed – if anything, him no being there was a blessing. She knew couldn't lose him, like she would have if he had stayed with her.

A/N: Can you tell me what you think of this chapter?


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